On November 2, 1943 Ralph W. Crego was elected into office as Mayor of Lansing in Michigan’s capital city. He would serve the City of Lansing for almost two decades until he was finally defeated in the election of 1961. During the long span of his eighteen years serving the city, Mayor Crego led Lansing through the 1940s and 50s - a period of urban renewal in the United States. Crego’s daughter,...

In 1963, the Detroit City Plan Commission prepared an informational bulletin to provide the public with “a ready reference to Detroit’s program of redevelopment”, and an explanation of their large aims to remove blighted areas from the city and replace them with “sound [and] logical development”. It first started with a brief history of urban renewal in Detroit, classifying urban renewal...

The story of Detroit’s "food desert" and urban abandonment is a common one in todays media, but as the story of the construction of the Union Produce Terminal in 1963 shows these are by no means new problems. In 1963 a city planning and urban renewal company called Parkins, Rogers, & Associates issued a feasibility survey for a wholesale food distribution center located in what was then referred...

Detroit’s streets and expressways have and continue to play an integral part in the city’s development and maintenance. While streets and expressways may be apolitical on their own, their placement by city planners has had a great effect on the city. In 1946, urban planners began to work on Detroit’s local transportation plan to tackle the city's growing problem of limited capacity for "through...

In the aftermath of WWII, Detroit followed national urban planning trends in seeking to enhance high-speed transportation between the growing suburbs and the city center. Plans began for an extension to the I-75 highway to rectify the problem. The route recommended by the Fisher Freeway Planning Committee began at the southwest limits of the city, in the neighborhood of Delray. There, it would connect...

In the mid-twentieth century, Detroit was on the cutting edge of transportation innovation, and many cities around the world marveled at the city's rapid growth and industrial pride. The John C. Lodge Freeway was one of the many attractions gaining Detroit much of its attention. An aerial photograph taken in 1950 shows the city's complex and multifaceted highway system starting to take form. The photo...

Barthwell Drugs was a well-known pharmacy chain in Detroit. The pharmacies were created by Sidney Barthwell. He was born in Cordele, Georgia; he left Georgia when he was 14 and worked with his father in Chicago. He eventually moved to Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School where he studied courses in pharmacological sciences. He then went on to Detroit Technological Institute (now Wayne State...

Detroit could soon be following a national urban environmentalism trend of ripping out freeways -- much like Portland and San Francisco -- by beginning to look into removing parts of its old I-375 freeway, also known as the Chrysler Freeway. It would remove the section running from Gratiot Avenue south to Jefferson Avenue, and replace it with a pedestrian-friendly parkway to reconnect LaFayette Park...

Detroit's Hastings Street was a place buzzing with activity and a hub for African American economic opportunity throughout the mid-twentieth century. Blacks were able to operate hospitals and practice medicine. Some of the other businesses that flourished along Hastings Street included a string of hotels and night spots; a grocery store, a cleaners, and a pool hall. However, the narrative of economic...

The neighborhood that once stood as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were subjected to “urban renewal” in the early 1960s. The Sanborn Insurance maps reflect the changes that the neighborhood underwent between1921 to the mid-1960s when I-75 was laid down , putting an end to the culturally rich area of east Detroit that existed around Hastings and Gratiot street. Changes to the land and buildings...